Admiring Christina Hendricks

Admiring Christina Hendricks

Christina Hendricks on “Mad Men,” Sixties sexism and Emmys

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Aug 17, 2011

by Flo

“I thought it was interesting to see some of Joan’s power be taken away,” revealed Christina Hendricks about her character’s arc on the fourth season of “Mad Men.” In a video chat with senior editors Rob Licuria and Chris Beachum, she explained, “These new guys come in and (do) not respect her or understand her position in the company. I feel she was threatened a lot this year and had a lot of challenges in that way.”

Hendricks has played Joan Harris (nee Holloway) on “Mad Men,” the reigning three-time Emmy champ for Best Drama Series, since its 2007 debut. As the office manager of the advertising agency, Joan is looked upon as second class by the men and that sexist attitude is the focus of Hendricks‘ episode submission, “The Summer Man.”

Explaining her choice, Hendrick said, “I thought there were some really intense scenes in that particular episode for Joan. Her being so threatened and so conflicted … reaching this boiling point. She never really just expodes; everything is very contained so that all of this fury that you have to control comes out in this fiery damaging way.”

Hendricks received her second consecutive bid as Best Drama Supporting Actress and is competing against last year’s winner Archie Panjabi (“The Good Wife”), Emmy champs Christine Baranski (“The Good Wife”) and Kelly Macdonald (“Boardwalk Empire”), and Emmy rookies Michelle Forbes (“The Killing”) and Margo Martindale (“Justified”).

As the fourth season of “Mad Men” ended, Joan’s husband Greg (Sam Page) had shipped off to be a medic in the Vietnam War, she found out that she was pregnant through an affair with her boss Roger Sterling (John Slattery), and she secretly decided not to have the abortion they arranged. Regarding the fifth season, which starts shooting this month after a longer-than-usual delay, Hendricks revealed, “It just seems like a natural progression actually for the the character, and it’s going to add some really rich dimensions.”